Health Care Nurse Sentenced

U.S. Attorney’s Office
August 23, 2013

Middle District of Georgia(478) 752-3511

Michael J. Moore, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia, announced that Melody Milton, 38, of Albany, Georgia, was sentenced on August 22, 2013, following her guilty pleas on August 23, 2012, to embezzlement of government property and aggravated identity theft. She received a sentence of 70 months’ imprisonment and was ordered to pay $110,431 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Ms. Milton, formerly a home health care nurse employed by Phoebe Putney Home Health Care, admitted that she opened bank accounts in the name of “Quick Cash Check Cashing” at two Albany area banks for the purpose of facilitating the illegal scheme. Ms. Milton would fraudulently obtain Internal Revenue Service refund checks at a post office box she opened in order to receive these checks directly. The checks were in the names of other persons without their knowledge or consent, many of whom were her own patients, while she was employed at Phoebe Home Health Care. She would then negotiate the checks for her own use by depositing the third party checks into these bank accounts which were controlled by her. The total value of all the treasury checks is $282,428.00.

“While she should have been caring for her patients, Ms. Milton was stealing their identities and using them to steal from the U.S. Treasury. Identity theft is not a ‘victimless’ crime, and my office will continue to make the prosecution of these cases a priority. Ms. Milton will now have a new identity—she will be known as a federal inmate,” said United States Attorney Michael Moore.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jim Crane.

Inquiries regarding the case should be directed to Sue McKinney, Public Affairs Specialist, United States Attorney’s Office at (478) 621-2602.